Releases

Overview

Releases are under Music → Releases. Each one is a page on your site with the cover, title, your artist name, listen and buy buttons, the player, the track list and the story you write, then the video and credits.

A new release (Music → Add Release) opens looking like its page, with three blocks already in place:

• Release: the cover, type and date, title, listen and buy buttons, pre-save and player. Click any of them to change it.
• Track List: the songs, in order. Add, create or paste songs, drag to reorder, and click a title or length to change it.
• A paragraph for the story behind the release.

Add any other blocks you like around them: photos, a video, press quotes. How the page is laid out comes from Release page layout under Music → Settings. The default, Split, keeps the cover in view on the left while everything else scrolls on the right: the title and buttons, the track list, what you add to the page, then the video, the credits and the label. The others put the cover on the left, on the right, on top, or blurred behind, with the video, credits and label under the content. To change it for one release, select the Release block and pick a Layout in the sidebar. Four more of your releases follow at the bottom.

The sidebar keeps what isn't on the page. Its Release panel has a line each for Link page, Player & video, Credits and More details, with what's set now; select Edit to change one. Under them, Clicks (last 30 days) shows how often visitors used the release's buttons (see Clicks). Fill in from a link sits under it.

Releases made before this, or imported, keep the automatic layout and the older sidebar panels. See Older releases.

Cover and title

• Cover: click it to open the Media Library and pick or upload the cover art (a square image, at least 1200 px wide if you have it). With a cover set, click it to Replace it, or select Remove cover. The sidebar's Cover art panel holds the same image.
• Title: type it in the big heading. It's the release's title, so there's no separate title field.
• Artist name: comes from Music → Settings. Leave it empty there to use the site title.

Release details

Click the line above the title ("Album · 2024") to open Release details:

• Type: Album, EP, Single, Live Album or Compilation. It shows above the title and drives the discography's filter buttons.
• Release date: the day it came out, or comes out. Releases are listed newest first by this date. Until a date still to come, the release shows "Out" with the date in place of the listen buttons (see Pre-save). For a pre-save, publish the release with a future release date: a release scheduled in WordPress stays hidden until its day.
• More details opens Label (leave it empty if self-released), Catalogue number and UPC (the barcode number from your distributor). Label and catalogue number show under the credits as "Released on …". They're also under More details in the sidebar's Release panel.

Tracks

The songs on the release, in its Track List. Each song is its own page, so the same song can be on a single and later on the album.

• Add a song: type a title. Songs you already have are listed, drafts too, with On this release next to ones already added. Pick one, or select Create “…” to make a new song with the title you typed (Enter does the same).
• Paste a track list: one song per line. Track numbers are dropped, and a time at the end (3:42) becomes the song's length. Songs you already have (same title) are reused; the rest are created.
• Reorder: drag a song by its number, or use Move up and Move down in the ⋮ menu at the end of its row.
• Change a title or length: click it and type.
• Lyrics: open a song with the arrow at the end of its row to write its lyrics, with Show lyrics and Lyrics credit under them.
• Open song (in the ⋮ menu) opens the song in a new tab, for its other details.
• Remove from this release (in the ⋮ menu) takes a song off this release only. The song itself stays under Music → Songs.

Changes to a song (its title, length and lyrics) save to the song straight away, on every release it's on, and the row shows "Saved". The order, and which songs are on the release, save when you update the release. The total running time shows under the list.

Songs created here stay drafts until the release is published, so their lyrics don't go live early. On a published release they're published when you update it.

If you remove the Track List block, a Tracks panel comes back in the sidebar to manage the songs there.

Listen links

A link to this release on each service, as buttons under the title and rows on its link page. With none yet, click "Add where people can listen…" under the title; after that, select + Add a link. Paste the address into Link to this release: the button takes the service's name (Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube Music, YouTube, Amazon Music, TIDAL, Deezer, SoundCloud, Audiomack, Pandora, Qobuz); any other site shows its domain.

Click a button to change its link, Move left or Move right, or Remove it. You can also drag the buttons. The order is the order on the page, so put your main service first. A link left empty is dropped.

Buy links

Where fans can buy the release: your store, Bandcamp, a record shop. Click "Add where people can buy it…" (or + Add a buy link), then fill in:

• Link: the product page.
• Format: Digital, Vinyl, CD, Cassette, Bundle or Merch.
• Price: optional, typed as it should read, like $25.
• Note: optional, like "Limited red vinyl".

Each one is a button with the format and price, and the note and store under them. A link to your own site shows as "Store". Click a buy button to change, move or remove it.

To leave the buy buttons off the page, turn off Buy buttons in the Release block's settings.

Pre-save

For a release that isn't out yet, set a Release date in the future and publish the release. Don't schedule it in WordPress (Publish → a future date): a scheduled release stays hidden until that day, so nobody can pre-save it. The block then shows "Out" with the date and + Add a pre-save link: click it and paste a DistroKid HyperFollow, Hypeddit or Feature.fm link into Pre-save link. Your listen buttons sit below it, ready for release day. After the date, Pre-save link (before release day) at the foot of the block still opens it.

Until the release date, the release page and its link page show "Out" with the date and a Pre-save button, and hide the listen buttons and the player. Its discography card shows Pre-save in place of Listen. To promote it on your home page, add a Release block set to Next upcoming: it adds an "Out" badge on the cover and, if you like, a countdown. From midnight on the release date (your site's time zone, under Settings → General), visitors see "Released" with the date, the listen buttons and the player instead. The switch happens in the visitor's browser, so you don't need to edit or update anything on the day. Add the listen links before then.

Player & video

• Player: the block shows the player as visitors see it before they press play. The button under it ("Player: automatic (Spotify)") picks which service plays. Automatic uses Spotify when the release has a Spotify link, then Apple Music, Bandcamp and SoundCloud (your Preferred player under Music → Settings goes first). Pick one to choose, or None for no player. A service you pick that has no listen link falls back to Automatic.
• Video: a YouTube link, set under Player & video in the sidebar's Release panel (select Edit). It shows under the story, with a "Video" heading.

The player shows the cover and a "Load Spotify player" (or Apple Music, Bandcamp, SoundCloud) button. The service's player loads right there when a visitor presses it, or by itself a few seconds after the page has loaded once the player is on screen, so it never slows the page down (or your PageSpeed score). On a site with a cookie notice, it only loads by itself for visitors who accepted cookies. At the top of the page, a Bandcamp album plays in Bandcamp's one-row player; the track list is right under it.

The Bandcamp player needs a detail Bandcamp keeps on its own page. It's fetched when you save a release that has a Bandcamp album or track link, or when you fill the release in from its Bandcamp link.

Credits

In the sidebar's Release panel, select Edit next to Credits. One credit per line, like Produced by: Jane Doe or Recorded at: Sun Studio. They show under the story in a "Credits" list. A line with no colon shows as a plain line.

Link page

Every release has a link page: a full-screen page with a button for every listen and buy link, for your bio, posters and QR codes. See Link pages.

The Link page line in the sidebar's Release panel shows its address. Select Edit to:

• Link page address: select Copy to copy it. Open appears once the release is published.
• Send visitors somewhere else instead: for one campaign, like a Hypeddit page, paste its address. The link page address then sends visitors there. Empty it to go back to the automatic page.

Clicks

With Dirigible Analytics on (it comes with Dirigible Optimize), every click on a release's buttons is counted: listen and buy buttons, Pre-save, the player's play button, and the same buttons on its link page and on release cards in the discography.

• Clicks (last 30 days) in the sidebar's Release panel shows the busiest services first, like "Spotify 42 · Apple Music 12 · Buy 5". Buy clicks are added up as Buy.
• Select View for the full table: a row per service, a column per kind of click (Listen, Play, Pre-save, Buy), and buttons for the last 7 days, 30 days or 90 days.
• Under it, Where they came from lists where those visitors arrived from, with the services they picked: for example Social: instagram.com, 22 clicks, "Spotify 15 · Apple Music 7", and Campaigns: QR code, 9. Direct means no referring site (a typed address, or a link in an app that hides where it came from). Not known is a click further into a visit from someone who hasn't accepted the cookie banner, where the site can't tell. Needs Dirigible Optimize with click sources (the version after 0.0.62).
• The Releases list has a Clicks (30 days) column, so you can see which releases people act on.
• A song has its own Clicks panel in its sidebar, for its listen buttons and player on the song page.

A button counts once per page view, however often it's clicked. Clicks from signed-in site managers aren't counted, so checking your own pages doesn't change the numbers. The numbers also show under Analytics in the admin menu, in the Events table, named like "Summer EP · Spotify · Listen". Open one there for its sources and the pages it was clicked on.

When Dirigible Analytics is off, the line reads "Turn on Dirigible Analytics (Optimize) to count clicks". Site managers can select it to go to Optimize Settings. Clicks start counting once it's on; there are no numbers for the time before.

This is separate from Send clicks to analytics under Music → Settings. Turning that off doesn't stop Dirigible Analytics counting.

Fill in from a link

In the sidebar's Fill in from a link panel, paste a link to the release on Apple Music, Bandcamp or Spotify into Links to the release and select Look it up. You'll see what was found, each part with a tick box, before anything changes.

One link is enough, but each service knows different things, so paste the release's other links too: select Add another link for a new row (up to five), or paste several links at once and each gets its own row. They're combined into one result:

• The title, track list, lyrics, cover art, buy links and Bandcamp player come from Bandcamp when you've pasted a Bandcamp link, then from Apple Music, then Spotify.
• A song missing its length, lyrics or ISRC code takes it from the same song on another of your links.
• The release date comes from Apple Music. When Bandcamp's date is more than a few days away from it, Bandcamp's is used instead, with a note so you can check.
• The type comes from Bandcamp. When Apple Music says something else, a note says so.
• Every link you pasted is ticked as a listen link.

Under Your links you'll see what each link filled in. A link that found nothing, or that looks like a different release (a different title and track list), is left out with a note saying why.

What each service gives:

• Apple Music: the title, type, release date, cover art and the track list with lengths.
• Bandcamp: the title, type, release date, cover art, the track list with lengths and lyrics, credits, and buy links with their formats and prices. The label and the songs' ISRC codes too, when Bandcamp lists them. It also sets up the Bandcamp player.
• Spotify: only the title and cover art. When the same release is on Apple Music, the date, type and track list come from there, with a note saying so. Check they match.

Whichever you paste, links to the same release on services you didn't paste (Apple Music, Deezer) are suggested, and so are its label and UPC. Suggestions say Suggested: check it and start unticked: select Open next to a link to check it's your release before ticking it.

• Details: ticked when the release doesn't have them yet. A detail you already have reads "Replace the … with" and starts unticked, with what you have now under it. Credits only fill in when the release has none.
• Use this cover art (or Replace the cover art): the cover is added to your Media Library.
• Tracks: Add these songs creates the songs. Songs you already have (same title or ISRC) are reused, not copied, and only get the length, ISRC or lyrics they're missing. When the release already has tracks, pick Add these to the end, Replace the track list or Leave the track list as it is.
• Listen links and Buy links: tick the ones to add. Links you already have are greyed out.

Nothing is changed until you select Use this. Then the songs and the cover are added straight away, and the rest fills in on the page and in the Release panel: save the release to keep it. Cancel leaves everything as it was.

Older releases

A release made before on-page editing, or imported, has no Release block. Its page keeps the automatic layout (the cover, buttons, player and track list, then the story, in the Release page layout from Music → Settings), and its sidebar keeps a panel for each setting: Release details, Tracks, Listen links, Buy links, Pre-save, Player & video, Credits and Link page, plus a Clicks panel. They hold the same fields as above.

To edit it on the page instead, open the Page layout panel and select Switch to editing on the page. That adds the Release and Track List blocks at the top of the page, above what you'd written, and the sidebar changes to the Release summary. Nothing changes on the site until you update the release.

Removing the Release block from a release puts it back on the automatic layout.